Rain inundates Delphi sewers; floods streets

Delphi and Carroll County were deluged Thursday night and Friday morning with enough rain to overwhelm the Delphi sewer system and flood streets.

But there was good news, at least temporarily. Lake Freeman water levels, which have been significantly low in recent weeks, returned to normal — partly from the rain and also because a Norway Dam floodgate was stuck open, Carroll County Emergency Management Agency Director Dana Jeffries said.

That malfunction dropped Lake Shafer's level nearly 20 inches.

In Delphi, Mayor Randy Strasser, city employees and residents fought the frustration Friday of way too much water in the streets.

"I think we've had over 7 inches of rain," Strasser said.

It is, after all, impossible to fit three gallons of water into a one-gallon bucket.

The heavy rains inundated the city's treatment plant with more water than it can process, and the storm sewers couldn't drain the water fast enough from the streets.

Deer Creek and the Wabash River, which frame the western Carroll County city, have not overflowed their banks, Strasser said. Flooding is solely tied to the city's storm sewer and treatment plant capacities, he said — the proverbial one-gallon bucket.

"Seven inches of water in 24 hours will do that," he said, admitting that it was a stressful morning. "We're waiting for everything to drain and empty out."

The rain brought relief for Lake Freeman residents, who been angered by federally mandated water releases from the Oakdale Dam into the Tippecanoe River to protect endangered mussels. That mandated release had meant lake levels too low for recreational use.

"It caused Lake Freeman to come all the way up," Jeffries said, estimating the area received nearly 6 inches of rain between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Lake Freeman was 19 inches below normal Thursday night.

Low water on the upper lake and normal levels on the lower lake likely are temporary, Jeffries said. Normal rainfall could mean normal levels for Lake Freeman, he said.

Shafer's level will increase because of upstream runoff and repairs to the floodgate, Jeffries said Friday afternoon.